The governor of the state of Osun Rauf Aregbesola has finally agreed to return some of the public schools to the missionaries. Aregbesola reportedly succumbed following pressure and continued protests by the christian community in the state.
Christian denominations had demanded that their schools, which were taken over by the government in 1975, be returned to them.
Osun state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN had been at the loggerheads with the governor over his education reform policy. Under the new policy, Aregbesola reclassified the school system and merged single sex schools, the latter infuriated the christians in the state. They accused him of planning to erode the legacies of the christian missionaries.The governor was also labelled a religious bigot.
Aregbesola who disclosed this in broadcast on Monday night said that those seeking for the return of the schools to them would, however, wait until the government concluded the reclassification process.
the governor however denied allegation that he planned to obliterate the legacies of missionary saying that only a foolish person would seek to rubbish the legacies of the missionaries in the education sector in the state. He said that he attended missionary primary and secondary schools.
He said, “I am also aware of the agitation of some missions to have their schools returned to them. Although, as I have said before, the schools have been had been take over by governments since 1975, our administration is not foreclosing the prospect of returning some of the schools upon the completion of our new schools.
“I wish to emphasise that this process can only begin upon completion of the schools we are currently and aggressively building all over the state. The process of return of schools must be well planned and executed because of the various implications, especially the fact that their ownership had changed almost four decades ago.”
The Christian Education Minister, Osun Baptist Conference, Rev. Bisi Oluwadamilare, expressed happiness about the willingness of the governor to return schools to their owners.
“That is a good news to us. This is what we have been agitating for. It is a welcome development, it is good . We are waiting for this to be implemented”, Oluwadamilare said.
